Oct. 1, 186S.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



239 



Pleubosigma angulatum. — I have lately taken 

 several gatherings of this form for examination, and 

 on one occasion was pleasingly entertained with a 

 revelation which I did not expect to witness. In the 

 instance referred to, I noticed a vigorous and 

 peculiar motion in several frustules. This move- 

 ment was unlike any other tli at had before come 

 under my observation. _ It appeared like trembling 

 waves of extremely minute granules, which some- 

 times flowed in a general stream towards the centre, 

 then, after a short rest, in the opposite direction ; 

 while at other times, for brief intervals, it flowed 

 both ways at once, viz., up one side _ and down the 

 other. The action was not present in all the speci- 

 mens, but in a great many that I examined. AH 

 the frustules that exhibited it were perfectly still, 

 except in one instance, so that I have no doubt of its 

 having been within them. I shall be glad to know 

 if any other reader of Science- Gossip has been 

 fortunate enough to see this movement. — B. Taylor. 



Local Names. — It is desired to collect as many 

 as possible of the local names of British plants ; 

 and the assistance is requested of all who take an 

 interest in the subject, or who may have the oppor- 

 tunity of ascertaining and recording them. Any 

 lists sent to Mr. James Britten, High Wycombe, or 

 to Mr. Robert Holland, Mobberley Knutsford, will 

 be thankfully received and acknowledged. 



What's in a Name ?— While staying at Hast- 

 ings lately we met a man carrying about a number 

 of hedgehogs, I suppose for sale. When we 

 stopped to inspect them, and called them hedgehogs, 

 he indignantly assured us that we were quite 

 wrong, for that they were "Abyssinian Porcu- 

 pines;' \—A. G. 



"Eolk Lobe."— -Onions. — It is firmly believed 

 in many parts of Yorkshire that a sliced onion 

 destroys infection ; and I have known several very 

 respectable and well-educated families who, in cases 

 of fever and other infectious diseases, have caused 

 a plate of sliced onions to be placed daily in the 

 sick-room. When removed, they were carefully de- 

 stroyed, from a belief that if any person accident- 

 ally used them, they would have the disease. The 

 onions are so powerful, it is said, that they draw the 

 infection to them, and absorb it. — Jno. Hanson, 

 Linton-on-Ouse, York. 



Cuckoo Incubation. — A correspondent asks, in 

 your July number, if there are any recent cases 

 known of a cuckoo rearing a brood of her own. 

 One day in May last I was sitting among rocks in 

 a bare "gill" between two of the bleak hills of 

 this district '(Moffat), where not a tree nor shrub 

 nor root of heather could be seen, when a cuckoo 

 alighted on the point of a crag, and three smaller 

 birds fluttered about her, following her closely. As 

 far as I and my companions could see, they were 

 young cuckoos, for they seemed to resemble her in 

 everything but size, which in their ease was about 

 that of a blackbird. Could we be mistaken in 

 supposing this to be a cuckoo, and her family reared 

 by herself?-^. S. T. 



Pbizes fob Eungi.— At the meeting of the fruit 

 committee (Horticultural Society) at South Ken- 

 sington, on October 6th, two prizes of the value of 

 three and two guineas respectively will be offered 

 for the best collection of edible fungi. — Gardener's 

 Chronicle. 



Diseased Gladioli. — I enclose a small micro- 

 scopic fungus of interest to me because I believe it 

 to be connected with the Gladiolus disease, which 

 has made great ravages this season. Some of the 

 plants have withered very early, without shewing 

 any signs of the cause. Others have developed the 

 inflorescence, but have been arrested in the very act 

 of blooming; these latter certainly shew a mycelium. 

 The fragment sent is a portion of the spathe of the 

 top flower of a spike which bloomed and appeared 

 quite healthy till this morning. If you think any 

 information may be gleamed about it by directing 

 the attention of the readers of Science Gossip to 

 the subject, I shall be glad if you would do so, as 

 the small quantity I grow, and the very small part 

 affected that has arrived at maturity, render it un- 

 safe to assert that the fungus really is the cause of 

 the disease. — A. G. 



[The fungus is a species of Mucor, and doubtless 

 the result of decay, not the cause of disease. — Ed.] 



Plumules. — I cannot account for " J. A. S." not 

 being able to find plumules in the male of the Large 

 White Pieris brassier, unless all the specimens were 

 very much worn, in which case I should have 

 expected to find some at least, or (what I can 

 scarcely imagine) he has examined females by 

 mistake. In every case, and I have tried scores of 

 specimens either taken on the wing or reared from 

 pupse, I have found plumules present. Since the ap- 

 pearance of " J. A. S.'s " query every male I have 

 been able to catch has had the distinctive plumule. 

 I should therefore be greatly obliged to " J. A. S." 

 if he would forward me a fore- wing of one of the 

 males, in which he has failed to find plumules, and I 

 shall have great pleasure in forwarding to him, either 

 direct, or through the Editor, an example of a male 

 in which the plumules are abundant. All entomo- 

 logists are aware that the male of the Large White 

 is without black spots near the middle of the upper 

 surface of the fore-wing, having two black spots on 

 the under surface only, while the female has two 

 such spots on both surfaces of the fore-wing. — 

 T. W. Won/or, 53, Buckingham Place, Brighton. 



Tea-tbee (W. C. C). — There is a Tea-tree 

 (Li/cium, barbarum) at Stowmarket, Suffolk, many 

 of the pendulous branches of which are this autumn 

 richly jeinmed with its exquisite fruit ; and I re- 

 member seeing another also in the Eastern counties, 

 producing berries, though I think in less quantity 

 than that growing at Stowmarket. — F. T. 



The Tea-tbee. — We have received so many 

 communications on the fruiting of this plant under 

 ordinary conditions that it is impolitic and im- 

 possible for us to publish them all. The evidence is 

 strongly in favour of the conclusion that fruiting, 

 though not universal, is not so uncommon a 

 circumstance as was at first supposed. 



Dorsal Fin of Gold-fish. — One of the gold- 

 fish in my landlady's aquarium has no dorsal flu, 

 only a slight boss on the centre of the back. Another 

 has the posterior half of the dorsal fin wanting. 

 They are "hot- water" fish— W. H. D. 



Cockroach in Bbead. — Permit me to ask 

 P. F. N. why he gratuitously assumes that his cock- 

 roach (page 215) had been incorporated with the 

 dough, and survived the heat of the oven. Every one 

 knows that the heat is too great for animal life to 

 continue, being often considerably over the boiling- 

 point of water.— W. H. D. 



